Among other things, I’ve been a Technical Director/Switcher (TD or TD/S) almost as long as I’ve been a videographer.

For those who don’t know what that is, I’m the last guy to “touch” the signal at a concert, sporting event or conference before it goes live.

I get to sit in front of a console and a bank of monitors with a whole bunch of text and flashing lights.

You’ve seen these photos before:

Still don’t get it?

We TDs laugh whenever we watch Star Wars Episode 4 (The ORIGINAL Star Wars film) – The Death Star “Planet Blower-Upper Gun” is actuated by the Take-Bar on a video switcher! Television geek inside jokes are so much fun! The Take-Bar is activated at 6 seconds in. I think every TD imagines all that power at least once per gig…

Well, for most of my career, the larger surfaces I’ve had the pleasure on working behind were manufactured by Canadian firm Ross Video.

One of the things I and my fellow TDs have always loved about Ross is their Take-Bar (or T-Bar) design.

Imagine my shock and surprise to see news this morning that their new Acuity large format switcher is now shipping with a new Take-Bar design.

I can’t lie – I missed this at the NAB Show in Vegas this year. I would have loved to have heard the discussions from other TDs about the feel of the new design.

But man, does it look hot!

The user interface is what makes a good TD great. The right feel and placement of buttons, dials, switches… I always assumed driving a Formula One car would be something like “driving” a switcher – anyone can kind-of jump in the driver’s seat and push some buttons and make it do something but a real artist can make it sing!

I’m a huge fan of Ross Video and have been since my beginnings. This is the sort of radical change I love seeing in my industry. Radical, not “disruptive”, a “game-changer” or some other hyperbolic adjective.

I wish my friends at Ross the very best of luck with this new design and hope someday I get to drive one!

Over the past 15 years that I’ve been my own boss running video production companies I’ve always found my work through referrals.

To be fair, I’ve held two Day Jobs that I applied for where I knew nobody (I worked at a craft brewery for 1 month shortly after I moved to Vancouver and my second health care centre video production job was in response to a Craigslist ad) but in terms of self-employed or business income?

All of my work has been referred.

ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.

Looking back, I’m certainly thankful but I have to say I’m a bit surprised.

I reflect on this having just submitted my response to a major corporation’s Request For Service Qualification bid request.

I spent approximately 20 hours putting my virtual best foot forward and realized that there isn’t a single person on the inside working on my behalf to get my proposal approved.

I respond to a fair number of RFPs over the course of a year and I get over half of them because they come to me from people who I have a professional history with or who have been referred to me by colleagues or clients.

Today, I’m just another manila padded envelope with a professionally printed and bound submission.

I’m used to doing business with clients who have been referred to me, like Don & Elizabeth who were kind enough to allow me to use them as references and the video we produced for BC Ambulance Service in my RFSQ response.

My maternal grandfather was a simple man who grew up on a farm and worked hard his entire life. In his 80s he still cleared snow for his neighbours, the “little old ladies” who were 20 years younger than he.

Things were simple in his world: work hard and enjoy the simple things.

His grandest praise was reserved for my grandmother’s cooking. She would make simple fare like potatoes, hamburgers in gravy, corn and a fresh apple pie every weekend. To hear grandpa fuss you’d swear she had cooked a meal fit for a king!

“Geez mum, that smells good!”, he’d say without fail every time dinner was served.

Grandpa had a simple philosophy:

“If you were meant to have it, you’ll get it.”

I wonder if life was simpler then or whether nothing has changed except the way we relate to life…

I miss my grandpa. I think he’d be proud of what I’ve done.

The bid process had two options for submission: online eBid or hard copy.

Things have been a little crazy here lately and I have a ton of cool things to share with you in the near future but for right now, I’d like to step up on my soapbox for just a minute…

I’m a huge proponent of professional training. I went to media college, albeit a private vocational college with a 5 month intensive program, to learn my craft despite coming in with a background in photography and live audio as a musician. I consider myself fortunate that I entered college with a solid base of knowledge that allowed me to build my knowledge base faster than a lot of my classmates who were starting from near-zero.

To be fair, I’m not entirely convinced that back in these days my musical prowess counted me as a musician in the strictest sense but I owned bass guitars and I climbed up on stage and made terrible noises at excessive volume with them.

The fact that I already understood concepts such as exposure, how shutter speed affects motion and depth of field meant that while everyone else was working on that I could be reading ahead and getting extra time in on the technology.

After media college I had a voracious appetite for reading trade periodicals and technical manuals. As the name of my first video production company states, I became a Gearhead.

The startling thing for me these days is that folks are actively dismissive of formal education, with such websites as NoFilmSchool being big proponents of the Do-It-Yourself business model.

I’ve always said that “Anyone who is completely self taught has a fool for a teacher”, a mis-take on the old proverb “He who undertakes to be his own teacher has a fool for a pupil”.

Making moving pictures, whether as a filmmaker or as a working videographer is no different, in my not-so-humble opinion. I’m seeing an increasing number of folks who have entered the discipline with a patent disregard and hatred for the concept of industry specific training. I feel we are rapidly losing the requisite knowledge to do things properly. To be fair, the film schools haven’t been doing that great a job in communicating the need for industry specific training either; in fact, increasingly schools are taking an “okay… what do YOU want to learn today” approach instead of providing a solid foundation to build on in order to stay in business.

Too much emphasis is put on rewarding the DIY’ers and not enough on recognizing the pillars of our community who share their extreme wealth of knowledge openly and at no charge on web forums.

I came across an egregious example of this phenomenon this morning on a web forum I used to participate on but asked to be removed from their user base due to this exact type of rhetoric.

The community has tried to come to the aid of a fellow user who is struggling with a very frustrating phenomenon common to all lenses, but one that is easily overlooked in the mainstream.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions but when folks with far more knowledge than I possess offer to share that knowledge with me at no cost and obligation, I listen!

One of the things that sets me apart from my peers these days is that I fully acknowledge what I don’t know and constantly try to better my knowledge of all aspects of my industry, not just the hottest new gadgets or the newest Search Engine Optimization techniques. There is no easy and quick way to be a superior motion picture maker. Read lots, talk to others who know more than you, shoot lots of footage, make lots of mistakes and learn from them.

I took the Sony PMW200 out on a personal shooting day yesterday just because I was looking for some inspiration as I prepare to start learning Adobe Premiere in a more official capacity.

But most of all, know what you don’t know and listen to those who know more than you do.

It may hurt your pride in the short term but you look like less of an idiot in the long run.

As my refugee grandmother used to say in her Old World Wisdom (and broken English):

The sheer fact that I’m going to rain derision on Social Networks on a Blog makes me chuckle to myself…

Me, antisocial?Photo Credit: Wendy D Photo

So… a lot of you folks are spending a significant amount of time working on your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds. You’re researching Search Engine Optimization and Google Adwords. You are looking up Hot Topics (no… not Hot Topic the Goth and “Punk” one-stop-shop…) to Blog about in order to increase web traffic.

If you are doing online commerce, fine.

If you are a service provider, you may be spending your energy in the wrong places.

But… for me, these are all ways of keeping in touch with folks that know me, either from having met in-person or having been introduced “virtually”.

When I worked for a stockbroker/investment advisor back in the mid-nineties, we sent out a monthly newsletter to keep our name in the minds of prospects and clients alike. We catered separate newsletters for equity players and income seekers. I made sure my broker stayed on topic and followed up with people who had expressed an interest via phone. No, I wasn’t a cold-caller – I interacted with folks who had expressly indicated an interest in staying in touch.

To me, that is what Social networking is good at.

I drive most of my own traffic to my website. I’m not overly worried about just how search engine optimized it is because I don’t want to do business with people who have found me from a Google search frankly. I would much rather get a referral from a client or colleague. The calibre of the client from my perspective goes up immensely if they are coming to me because of a recommendation or testimonial rather than because I was the top search result in a search engine.

I want people to hire me for what I do. My style, my attitude, my ability.

Not because I hired a specialist to get me more hits or higher results in a web search engine.

Those things can be bought and aren’t indicative of who I am personally.

Remember though… I provide a service that typically bills in the thousands of dollars. I offer boutique service based on client needs, not just a preconceived package that people need to be slotted into.

If I was selling t-shirts, automotive parts or widgets I might feel differently.

But I’m not.

I’m selling myself.

And I’m not selling out.

The Pareto Principle states roughly that “80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients”.

I learned that when I was working for the stockbroker.

Without even realizing I was doing it, way back in 1999 when I started down this road I started talking to people and planting the seeds that would eventually germinate into my core business clientele. No hard sale techniques, just make a good impression and make sure people know what you do.

1999 was years before Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn existed. In fact, back then the Internet pretty much sucked if you weren’t an Über-geek.

Back then you needed to meet people.

Today is no different. Social Networks are a tool for staying in touch with people and to be referred to people. They are not the be-all-and-end-all of your overarching marketing schema.

My good friend and colleague photographer Wendy D recently held her annual Milkshake Party where she invites clients, friends and colleagues to come into her studio, drink some milkshakes and mix and mingle. This year she tried something different and invited a handful of folks from LinkedIn whom she had connected with but had never met.

Her conversion rate for LinkedIn invites to attendance was impressive. VERY impressive.

In this day and age, people still want to meet the people they do business with.

Interpersonal relationships are still important today.

Keeping the location fun is an important part of video productionPhoto Credit: Wendy D Photo

All but one of my major suppliers of goods and services are folks I have met personally and consider friends. The other supplier is pretty much the largest player in the industry from a sales perspective and even then I get to interact with them at the industry mega-event NAB Show.

So my advice to you is beware of false metrics. I know it feels great to have 5000 friends on Facebook, 10k followers on Twitter and a million views on your Blog. A front page on a Google Search is marketed as a must-have.

Part of the crew including talent and client representative on a recent women’s health video shootPhoto Credit: Wendy D Photo

But if you aren’t converting those metrics into business, what’s the point?

Stay in touch with people. Use the tools at your disposal. Make sure people know who you are.

But if you are in a service related industry, provide customer service.

Follow the Pareto Principle and work on increasing the calibre of those 20% of clients who are delivering (directly or via referrals) the 80% of your business as well as the calibre of the service you provide to them.

My mentor Terry always said “Nothing but the best for the workers” and he meant it. He treated us well and paid us well for our level of ability.

I’ve tried to maintain that perspective throughout my career.

I recently had a new client muse “You seem like you are socially liberal but might be a fiscal conservative”. I answered “I like value and I love people”.

I’ve struggled over the years to define who I am as a professional videographer. I originally thought of myself as a freelancer (and frankly I probably was…) but in the intervening years as I started to more fully develop my skill set and took on a more holistic approach to visual production I struggled with definitions:

am I a social capitalist?

a social activist?

a socially-conscious service provider?

Just recently I settled on Ethical Entrepreneur. In all my business dealings I try very hard to maintain dignity for myself and for all involved. I have endeavoured to give voice to the voiceless and to raise awareness of issues that are flying just under the radar of most people.

I have found that what viewers relate to most in visual media is other people that they can relate to or empathize with.

As much as I like to joke about not playing well with others, I take great pride in putting together a team and watching them all do what they do at an expert level.

On location with a clientPhoto Credit: Wendy D Photography

Like my mentor Terry before me, I try to pay my people well – in most cases better than the industry rate. This typically means that I get the people I want on location when it comes time to go to camera. In a city like Vancouver where so many crews are found on Craigslist hours prior to a shoot, I pride myself on my real social network – the people I know personally or through people I trust.

One of the proudest moments for me on every gig is handing over a cheque to the people who I hire. Spending money is never an easy thing, especially in these days of ever-tightening wallets, but good people are always worth the money.

One of my all time favourite quotes from my favourite movie of all time, Das Boot:

Captain (Jürgen Prochnow): “You have to have good men. Good men, all of them.”

I built my businesses from nothing.

Something very bad happened to me and one of my friends back in 1995.

I decided right there that I was going to do something meaningful with my life.

Life handed me lemons so I opened a lemonade stand.

In 1999, I started Gearhead Visual Productions in Winnipeg, Manitoba with $500. I made a decent living providing documentary visual support as camera operator and editor on international social justice documentaries and self-produced many workplace safety and health videos back when WPS&H wasn’t particularly glamourous. I learned then that investing in your business is a good thing. At least 50% of my revenue went back into the business back in those days.

What it took me many more years to learn is that it isn’t the gear that makes a great story…

It’s the people.

Even the name of my first business gives away my naiveté around that fact – I focused on the gear, not the people even though I knew the value of good talent.

Upon moving to Vancouver, BC I rebranded to Road Dog Media in homage to something my good friend and colleague Earl Greyeyes used to call me when I’d show up 800 kms away from my former home base in Winnipeg with a vehicle full of over $100k in video production gear having driven treacherous highways on the Canadian Prairies in winter with harrowing stories of near-death experiences…

No… the title doesn’t imply that I spent my New Year’s Eve imbibing of the Green stuff that British Columbia is notorious for… I enjoy tequila and West Coast IPA beer and this year I didn’t even partake of those…

My New Year’s Resolution is to start shooting and editing in 4k Ultra High Definition (UHD) this year for projects that can benefit from it.

UHD is the “broadcast friendly” version of 4k – sometimes known as Quad HD because it is twice as wide and twice as tall as “Full HD” for 4 times as many pixels on screen.

3840 x 2160 or 8.29 million pixels.

The search has begun for the right production-through-post production solution for my business model – I’m not a cinematographer working on indie films; I’m a working videographer whose primary business is training, promotion and best practices videos along with not-for-broadcast long form documentaries. Run-and-gun is the name of my game.

Thankfully, I have some amazing friends and colleagues who are sharing their wisdom and the technologies they have available. Whether it’s my buddy Dylan at the local rental house sending me out with a RED Scarlet for a couple of days or Guy at DVEStore in Marysville, Washington saying “come on down” to try out the new BlackMagic Design 4k Cinema Camera when it arrives or my Sony dealer in Hamilton, Ontario offering to send me a camera to try to my many friends online (some of whom I have met in person) making all sorts of offers of support, moral or otherwise.

Dylan at Gearhouse Camera Rentals hooked me up with a RED Scarlet with Zeiss declicked stills primes to test.

I can’t even begin to imagine trying to go down this road alone.

I’m 15 years in as a working pro and I still get mesmerized by the options (or frankly, lack thereof…) available to the shooter of today. I can’t even begin to imagine how someone who doesn’t have the years of developing and evolving a style, workflow, look and expectations to fall back on makes these sorts of decisions on anything other than hearsay or budgetary considerations.

Unlike others who are looking for that ubiquitous “film-style”, uncertain exactly what that means except a Super35mm sensor with cheap Stills glass shot wide open, I’m looking for something very specific – more of a high-end polished look with exceptional clarity and motion signature. RAW is an option for me but fast delivery leads me to believe the majority of my work will be in compressed 4k.

I know what my Money-Is-No-Object solution is.

Now I just need to find the Gateway solution – the one that will allow me to recoup my costs at a fair and equitable rate while still allowing me to offer my clients options. Something I can build upon.

I started shooting HD regularly in 2005 beginning with a broadcast documentary that took me to Germany telling a tale of economic refugees moving from Europe to Canada. We knew we would be downconverting to SD for broadcast but the higher resolution source footage looked great in standard definition. By 2007, I was shooting HD exclusively. I suspect it will take about that long to transition to a predominantly 4k workflow as the delivery stream is still in question. YouTube is now supporting 4k uploads but not very many people have screens much larger than HD right now anyway. Other delivery options are likely to mature before the demand is fully realized.